Floyd Landis calls pro cycling 'organized crime'

Feb. 13, 2013
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In a file photo from July 30, 2010, Floyd Landis crosses the finish line after racing a 2.3-mile time trial section during the Tour of the Catskills cycling race in Tannersville, N.Y. He is promoting a Gran Fondo race in June in the Catskills. / Hans Pennink AP

by By Frederick Dreier, Special to USA TODAY Sports

by By Frederick Dreier, Special to USA TODAY Sports

Three years after his doping admission exposed the rampant performance-enhancing drug use of Lance Armstrong and other American pro cyclists, Floyd Landis will step back into the bicycle world this spring.

Landis, 37, is organizing a "Gran Fondo" amateur race in New York's Catskills Mountains June 1-2. He said he wants the event to focus solely on amateur and recreational riders, not professional racers.

Speaking from his home in southern Connecticut, Landis said the race is less about restoring his public image and more about interacting with recreational cyclists.

"This is about using whatever association people have with me to create an event where people can have a good time," Landis said. "Other than that, I'm finished with cycling - I have no interest in being a public figure in cycling."

Landis' relationship with cycling since he was stripped of the 2006 Tour de France win has been dysfunctional at best, depressing at worst. He maintained his innocence for four years, and his comeback to pro racing in 2009 was plagued by marginal results and team dysfunction.

In 2010, Landis admitted to doping throughout his career in a detailed letter to USA Cycling and a series of interviews, and then retreated from the public eye. Since then he's focused on various lawsuits that sprung from his admission, including a fraud case from donors to his defense fund, and a whistleblower lawsuit against Armstrong for defrauding the federal government.

Landis declined to discuss his lawsuits or Armstrong's confession of doping. Landis said he will pay back the nearly $480,000 in donations he received during his failed fight against doping authorities. He described the last three years of his life as "a long process."

"I didn't tell the truth for a long time, and it was hard for me to then tell the truth and watch people try to say that wasn't the case," Landis said. "I was a villain for people in cycling because I lied for so long."

Landis' race will include a steep 3-mile climb on June 1 and a 100-mile route around Windham, N.Y., on June 2. Registration costs $100. The event is timed, and will award prizes for top age group finishers, but it has no affiliation with cycling's national governing body, USA Cycling. Landis is organizing the event alongside race promoter Dieter Drake, whose Tour of the Battenkill race in Cambridge, N.Y., is one of the largest amateur races in the country.

Promoting Gran Fondo (Italian for "big ride") events has become en vogue for cyclists of Landis' era. Levi Leipheimer, who admitted to doping during the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency's investigation into Armstrong, has held a Gran Fondo in Santa Rosa, Calif., since 2009. George Hincapie, whose testimony before USADA was crucial in the Armstrong case, will debut the Gran Fondo Hincapie in Greenville, S.C., in October.

Germany's 1997 Tour champion Jan Ulrich, whose career ended in 2006 after he was linked to a Spanish doping ring, is a regular at European Gran Fondo events and also helped launch the Miami Gran Fondo in 2011.

Whether the American cycling community welcomes Landis is yet to be seen. Ulrich Fluhme, who promotes New York City's Gran Fondo NY, said he has mixed feelings about Gran Fondos that are affiliated with riders who competed during pro cycling's dirty era.

"I'm always torn between giving someone a lifetime ban and giving them a second chance," said Fluhme, who does not promote his race with pros. "I think these guys can show through personal behavior if they really learned from their mistakes."

Drake said he is not worried that Landis' presence will deter registration. He believes Landis' participation in USADA's case against Armstrong and his public discussions of his own doping has changed public opinion.

"Floyd was the first guy to come out," Drake said. "Some might view that as a bad PR move, but I think he'll end up being on the right side of history."

Landis said he and Drake will use the 2013 race to decide whether the level of interest is great enough to make it an annual event. Landis will also participate in both days of racing. He said he's prepared to field any questions about his past, should participants ask about his own experiences in pro racing.

"I've been dealing with this for seven years now, and it's not a painful thing to talk about anymore," he said. "Things have evolved. It's better now that I can tell the truth about what happened."